article

Design erosion: problems and causes

Authors:

Jilles van Gurp,

Jan BoschAuthors Info & Claims

Journal of Systems and Software, Volume 61, Issue 2

Pages 105 - 119

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0164-1212(01)00152-2

Published: 01 March 2002 Publication History

Abstract

Design erosion is a common problem in software engineering. We have found that invariably, no matter how ambitious the intentions of the designers were, software designs tend to erode over time to the point that redesigning from scratch becomes a viable alternative compared to prolonging the life of the existing design. In this paper, we illustrate how design erosion works by presenting the evolution of the design of a small software system. In our analysis of this example, we show how design decisions accumulate and become invalid because of new requirements. Also it is argued that even an optimal strategy for designing the system (i.e. no compromises with respect to e.g. cost are made) does not lead to an optimal design because of unforeseen requirement changes that invalidate design decisions that were once optimal.

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Cited By

Herold SSinkala ZHong JLanperne MPark JCerny TShahriar H(2023)Using Automatically Recommended Seed Mappings for Machine Learning-Based Code-to-Architecture MappersProceedings of the 38th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/3555776.3577628(1432-1439)Online publication date: 27-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555776.3577628
Giordano GFesta GCatolino GPalomba FFerrucci FGravino C(2023)On the adoption and effects of source code reuse on defect proneness and maintenance effortEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-023-10408-629:1Online publication date: 12-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-023-10408-6
Hassan SBaabad AZulzalil HBaharom S(2022)A Survey on Characterizing the Empirical Analysis, Proposed Approaches, and Research Trends for Architectural DecayInternational Journal of Software Innovation10.4018/IJSI.29751210:1(1-18)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2022
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Index Terms

Design erosion: problems and causes
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Software management
        Software maintenance
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Software post-development issues

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cover image Journal of Systems and Software

Journal of Systems and Software Volume 61, Issue 2

March 2002

89 pages

ISSN:0164-1212

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Elsevier Science Inc.

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 March 2002

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Cited By

Herold SSinkala ZHong JLanperne MPark JCerny TShahriar H(2023)Using Automatically Recommended Seed Mappings for Machine Learning-Based Code-to-Architecture MappersProceedings of the 38th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing10.1145/3555776.3577628(1432-1439)Online publication date: 27-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555776.3577628
Giordano GFesta GCatolino GPalomba FFerrucci FGravino C(2023)On the adoption and effects of source code reuse on defect proneness and maintenance effortEmpirical Software Engineering10.1007/s10664-023-10408-629:1Online publication date: 12-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10664-023-10408-6
Hassan SBaabad AZulzalil HBaharom S(2022)A Survey on Characterizing the Empirical Analysis, Proposed Approaches, and Research Trends for Architectural DecayInternational Journal of Software Innovation10.4018/IJSI.29751210:1(1-18)Online publication date: 18-Mar-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.4018/IJSI.297512
Dhaouadi M(2022)Extraction and Management of RationaleProceedings of the 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3551349.3559568(1-3)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2022
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Dhaouadi MOakes BFamelis M(2022)End-to-End Rationale ReconstructionProceedings of the 37th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering10.1145/3551349.3559547(1-5)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2022
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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1016/j.jss.2019.110420
Li RLiang PSoliman MAvgeriou P(2022)Understanding software architecture erosionJournal of Software: Evolution and Process10.1002/smr.242334:3Online publication date: 1-Mar-2022
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Sousa LOizumi WGarcia AOliveira ACedrim DLucena C(2020)When Are Smells Indicators of Architectural Refactoring OpportunitiesProceedings of the 28th International Conference on Program Comprehension10.1145/3387904.3389276(354-365)Online publication date: 13-Jul-2020
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Oliveira ASousa LOizumi WGarcia A(2019)On the Prioritization of Design-Relevant Smelly ElementsProceedings of the XIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Components, Architectures, and Reuse10.1145/3357141.3357142(83-92)Online publication date: 23-Sep-2019
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Lenhard JBlom MHerold S(2019)Exploring the suitability of source code metrics for indicating architectural inconsistenciesSoftware Quality Journal10.1007/s11219-018-9404-z27:1(241-274)Online publication date: 1-Mar-2019
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